KTBIF Awards Over $16 Million to Kentucky Breeders for 2023

Edited Press Release

Awards are on the way to Kentucky's Thoroughbred breeders participating in the commonwealth's Thoroughbred Breeders' Incentive Fund (KTBIF) program. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) announces the release of $16.2 million through the KTBIF.

“Our horse farm families are the backbone of our racing industry, and I'm proud to support the Incentive Fund that keeps mares and foals in Kentucky,” said Gov. Andy Beshear.

According to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, the Kentucky Equine industry generates $6.5 billion and supports more than 60,000 jobs.

In fact, 2023 was a good year for business. Highlights include:

  • Kentucky-bred horses won 63% of all graded stakes races in the U.S.
  • Kentucky-bred horses won 298 graded stakes races with 68 of them held at one of Kentucky's five Thoroughbred racetracks.
  • Kentucky-bred horses have won the last nine Kentucky Derbies and last seven Kentucky Oaks.
  • Kentucky-bred horses took home the hardware in all three legs of the Triple Crown: Mage (Good Magic) won the Kentucky Derby; National Treasure (Quality Road) won the Preakness and Arcangelo (Arrogate) won the Belmont S.
  • Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) won the Kentucky Oaks.
  • Kentucky-bred Cody's Wish (Curlin) won the 2023 Horse of the Year Eclipse Award Winner.
  • Mage and Pretty Mischievous both will receive a $50,000 KTBIF bonus.

The KTBIF was implemented in 2005 to ensure the strength of Kentucky's equine industry by awarding funds to individuals who choose to breed a Thoroughbred mare in Kentucky. To qualify, the mare must be bred to a Kentucky registered stallion, remain in the state during her full gestation and foal in Kentucky.  Final award amounts are then based on the foal's eventual earnings at the racetrack.

The KTBIF is funded through a percentage of the sales tax paid when a stallion is bred to a mare in Kentucky. Since the fund's inception, more than $234 million has been distributed to Kentucky breeders for winning eligible races worldwide.

A list of the 2023 award winners, along with the amount awarded and other interesting statistics, can be found on the KHRC website by clicking here.

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When is a Maiden Not a Maiden? It Cost this Owner $5,331 to Find Out

When is a maiden not considered a maiden for entry purposes? Pennsylvania-based owner Albert “Abby” Abdala III lost $5,331 in second-place purse money trying to find out after an “ineligible entry” ruling was imposed upon him and his trainer, Bernard Dunham, on Feb. 2 by the Turfway Park stewards.

Abdala, who has owned Thoroughbreds for 10 years after getting started in horse ownership with Standardbreds, told TDN in a Feb. 8 phone interview that he still doesn't understand why Turfway officials accepted his entry for the 0-for-9 Magnolia Wind (Central Banker) in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race Jan. 4 if the stewards later deemed the 4-year-old filly to be ineligible.

The eligibility issue arose after the Jan. 4 race when Magnolia Wind was going to be entered again, and Turfway stewards Barbara Borden, Ron Herbstreit, and Brooks Becraft III learned that Abdala had an appeal pending with the Maryland Racing Commission over Magnolia Wind's race-interference disqualification from first to second in a $30,000 maiden-claimer at Laurel Park Nov. 9.

In that Laurel race, the 12-1 Magnolia Wind led all the way in a 5 1/2-furlong grass sprint. According to the Equibase chart, she “drifted out near the sixteenth pole, dug in and prevailed.”

“She won the race,” Abdala said. “But the stewards said we were 'herding,' which I thought was ridiculous because both riders were riding to the wire, nobody checked, and we held on. I appealed it, but the hearing wasn't going to be until Feb. 6.”

In the interim, after Magnolia Wind had gone nearly two months without a start, Abdala said he told Dunham, who has been a licensed trainer for 33 years, “She's good right now, we've got to race her.”

Although Magnolia Wind trains at Fair Hill in Maryland, Abdala did not want to run her on the dirt somewhere closer to home, because that's not her best surface, he explained.

“That's why I went out to Turfway, because she needs the Tapeta or the turf,” Abdala said.

Because Magnolia Wind's record on Equibase clearly showed the she had zero lifetime wins, “I assumed that the horse was eligible as a maiden,” Abdala said.

“I told my trainer to put her in, and he put her in. He entered her [electronically via] the computer. And we never said anything to anybody [about the Maryland appeal], because I didn't know we had to. They accepted the entry. Then we drove that filly nine hours to get to Turfway.”

The long journey appeared to pay off. Magnolia Wind ran second at 5-1 odds.

“And now they come after me saying that we knew she wasn't eligible, and that we're unlawful,” Abdala said.

Abdala said that after being notified of the ineligibility, he didn't come away from a conversation with Borden, Herbstreit, and Becraft with a clear understanding of why the Turfway's racing office officials or the stewards didn't bear some responsibility for allowing the entry in the first place.

TDN emailed Borden, the chief state steward, plus Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) executive director Jamie Eads, asking for some context behind the ruling and for clarification about why the Jan. 4 entry was approved by Turfway officials.

A different KHRC spokesperson replied with an email that outlined some of the sequence of events on “background only.” Because what was disclosed in that email could not be attributed to a specific KHRC official, the entire explanation has not been provided here. A follow-up request by TDN asking if the KHRC wanted to provide any response for the record did not yield a reply prior to deadline for this story.

The Turfway stewards' report for that date that is signed by all three stewards and posted on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission website makes no mention of the ineligibility.

But the subsequent Feb. 2 stewards' ruling disqualified Magnolia Wind from second place and ordered her $5,331 in purse earnings redistributed.

“I'm an accountant, a CPA, and I have an accounting firm,” Abdala said. “We have a lot of horse racing people as clients. I've asked everybody, and they all told me, 'Abby, your horse was eligible.'”

Abdala said he is no longer pursuing any appeals in Maryland or Kentucky regarding his twice-DQ'd filly.

“I didn't want to cause trouble or anything, and I want the filly to be able to race,” Abdala said. “So I just dropped everything–I dropped the hearing in Maryland, and I dropped the [potential appeal] at Turfway. I just want her to run. It's detrimental to her. After I dropped everything, they said they'll accept our entry now.”

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Baffert, Zedan Drop Appeal of Medina Spirit Disqualification

Trainer Bob Baffert took to X late Monday afternoon to report that he has told his legal team to drop the appeal to the result of the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, from which Zedan Racing Stable's Medina Spirit (Protonico) was disqualified for a betamethasone positive.

The post read: “I have instructed my attorneys to dismiss the appeal related to the disqualification of Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Zedan Racing owner, Amr Zedan, and I have decided that it is best to positively focus on the present and future that our great sport offers. We thank the KHRC (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission) and Churchill Downs for listening and considering our point of view and we are grateful for the changes and clarity that HISA brings to our sport.”

Ever since Medina Spirit was disqualified over the positive for the medication betamethasone, Baffert and Zedan have tried to have the disqualification overturned. Their primary argument was that the medication got into the horse's system through a topical cream used to combat skin rashes. Baffert and Zedan's lawyers would eventually build more than two years of court cases and administrative appeals around the contention that the betamethasone that showed up in Medina Spirit's post-race positive test was the type that came from a permissible topical ointment and not via some other restricted means, like an intra-articular injection.

In September, Zedan and Baffert filed a petition for a judicial review of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commissions's disqualification of the colt from his win in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The petition was filed in Franklin Circuit Court in Kentucky and also includes a protest over Baffert's suspension in Kentucky.  Zedan and Baffert claim in the petition that the “laboratory limit of detection” used to identify betamethasone in Medina Spirit “is contrary to the plain terms of KHRC regulations and is void as arbitrary and capricious.”

They also argued that KHRC's exercise of rule making and adjudicatory powers is illegal and that the penalties against Zedan “are unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious.”

One month earlier, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) closed the 27-month regulatory saga involving Medina Spirit's Kentucky Derby drug disqualification by unanimously voting to deny appeals by trainer Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables while accepting a hearing officer's recommended order that the penalties originally imposed by the Churchill Downs stewards be affirmed in their entirety. From there, Zedan and Baffert began to try to win their case through the courts.

“The KHRC did what it does best–rubber stamped its own foregone conclusion. I will discuss with Mr. Baffert, but believe it is highly likely the matter is appealed so that it can finally be presented to an impartial Court,” Baffert attorney W. Craig Robertson III said at the time.

It was not clear Monday why Zedan and Baffert apparently changed their minds and decided to drop their case.

It is possible that their dropping the case was a peace offering in what has been an ugly battle between Churchill Downs and Zedan and Baffert that at times took on a personal tone. Churchill first banned Baffert from the 2022 and 2023 Derby. In a surprising move, Churchill announced in July that the Baffert ban was being extended until at least Dec. 31, 2024.

“Mr. Baffert continues to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit,” Churchill said at the time in a statement.

Churchill also recently announced that any horse trained by someone banned by the track (Baffert is believed to be the only one under such a suspension) will be ineligible to compete in the Derby if still in that trainers barn as of Jan. 29.

Throughout the dispute, there was widespread speculation that Churchill's harsh treatment of Baffert was in response to the lawsuits. With those lawsuits now having been dropped, it will be interesting to see how Churchill reacts and what doors might open for Baffert and his owners.

Following the news that the case had been dropped, Churchill Downs officials said that the development would have no bearing on Baffert's current status. “Today's dismissal of appeal does not change the current suspension or deadline to transfer horses for the upcoming 150th Kentucky Derby,” read a statement forwarded by Churchill's Darren Rogers.

 

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2024 Kentucky Race Dates Set

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday approved a Thoroughbred racing calendar for 2024 that largely mirrors the template that has been in place for the past three seasons.

The board's unanimous approval included a conditional “optional dates” placeholder for Ellis Park's July and August calendar that has to be solidified into a three-dates-per-week commitment before the end of this year.

The gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), which owns Ellis, Churchill Downs Racetrack, and Turfway Park, had requested additional time to figure out if swapping Fridays for Mondays will be feasible for 2024.

So Ellis got awarded 18 mandatory dates (which will be run on Saturdays and Sundays) and 30 optional dates. Waqas Ahmed, the KHRC's executive deputy director, told commissioners that he expected Ellis would eventually end up picking up seven more mandatory dates from that optional allotment of 30.

“The obvious goal at Ellis is to run three days a week,” Gary Palmisano, Jr., CDI's  executive director of racing, said during the KHRC meeting. “As we approached the race dates application deadline, the idea was tossed around of potentially running Saturday, Sunday, Monday rather than [this season's] Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”

Leaving that placeholder for now, Palmisano said, “is going to allow our team a little bit more time to conduct some due diligence [and] make sure the horsemen are on board; make sure test barn workers can get there; make sure we can actually cover potential Monday racing.”

CDI must notify the KHRC by Dec. 31 as to how it will satisfy the commission's condition that calls for “at least” three days of racing per week at Ellis in 2024.

Assuming Ellis ends up with 25 mandatory dates, the total number of race dates in Kentucky will rise slightly in 2024 compared to the assigned dates for 2023, up from 211 to 215. The total mandatory dates for the other tracks are Churchill (83), Turfway (67), Keeneland (33) and Kentucky Downs (7).

Here's a chronological look at the state's 2024 Thoroughbred schedule:

Turfway: Jan. 3-Mar. 30 on a Wednesday-Saturday evening schedule.

Keeneland: Apr. 5-26 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule.

Churchill Downs: Apr. 27-June 30 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule, with exceptions on GI Kentucky Derby week and the Memorial Day holiday week.

Ellis Park: July 4-Aug. 27 with Saturdays and Sundays anchoring the schedule, plus additional dates to be announced and an opening-day Thursday card on Independence Day.

Kentucky Downs: Aug. 29-Sept. 11 for seven dates with three “optional” dates in case of rainouts.

Churchill: Sep. 12-29 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule.

Keeneland: Oct. 4-26 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule.

Churchill: Oct. 27-Dec. 1 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule.

Turfway: Dec. 4-28  on a Wednesday-Saturday evening schedule with a Christmas Day  exception.

 

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